Exposition

Bloody serious business (2025)

Renée Compen
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About this exposition

From my own experience I am quite sure that the menstrual cycle has both mental and physical effects on us as professional musicians. But what exactly are these effects, what does it affect and how aware are we of them? What can we do to keep our practice sessions productive and how do we manage to do rehearsals, auditions, and concerts when we suffer from our menstrual cycle? It is still a taboo subject, and it is high time that we got rid of it. That it becomes normal to talk about our menstrual cycles. This research is not about solving the monthly problems we experience but about making them negotiable and finding ways to deal with them so that we can make our lives as professional musicians easier. For this research I used several methods. I did a literature review and investigated the effects of the menstrual cycle on myself, my fellow saxophone students in the KC saxophone class, and other female musicians through the following methods: menstruation log, discussion session, and a questionnaire among professional students and musicians in the work field. The results show that the menstrual cycle affects us as professional wind musicians. It affects us in several ways such as motivation, energy, concentration, physical pain, confidence level, and emotional stability. This can have an impact on our individual lives as musicians, but also on our working environment. It is time to start talking about our menstrual cycles, to make schools and teachers aware of how important it is, and for students to learn about their own menstrual cycles!
typeresearch exposition
keywordsMenstruation, Mental health, wind player
date13/11/2024
published14/07/2025
last modified14/07/2025
statuslimited publication
copyrightR. Compen
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3174974/3174975
published inKC Research Portal
portal issue3. Internal publication


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